


Size Doesn't Matter

by TheRebelFlower



Series: Fab Five Feb 2021 [3]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Fab Five Feb 2021, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRebelFlower/pseuds/TheRebelFlower
Summary: A rescue is a rescue, no matter the size. Or the rescuee.
Series: Fab Five Feb 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174397
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	Size Doesn't Matter

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the 2021 Fab Five Feb challenge. My additional challenge is to add Kayo to the stories, as she's part of the gang too. The prompts for Gordon's week were: "You did what?", delightful, bat, city, a memory.

“ _Thunderbird Five to Tracy Island, we might have... something?_ ”

Gordon looked up from his tablet, confused by his brother’s uncertain tone of voice. “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked back. “Have you been in space too long? Do you need a break?”

John didn’t look impressed or amused. “ _As strange as this will seem, you were the one I was hoping to catch._ ”

“Me? That’s a first,” Gordon commented, sitting up, visibly intrigued.

“ _I got a call from someone in Quebec, Canada and... hold on, I’ll put her through._ ”

Gordon caught sight of Kayo arriving in the lounge as a woman appeared on the holoprojection system. “ _Hello?_ ” She said, sounding concerned.

“Hello, yes, go ahead,” Gordon smiled encouragingly.

“ _Yes... as I told your teammate, I know this is not something International Rescue does normally, but I’m desperate and I was hoping you might be able to help._ ”

“We’ll see what we can do, what’s going on?”

“ _I’m with the St. Lawrence oceanographic research center and we have a whale caught in a fishing net in the estuary. Our entanglement crew is already busy on another case because they went to help an American crew off the coast of Massachusetts, the coast guard is further up north close to Newfoundland and even if I could call either back, I don’t think they would make it in time. A passing tanker crew spotted the whale and reported it to us. They said he wasn’t moving much and we’re afraid he’s just going to drown before anyone can get to him. You have seafaring crafts, don’t you? Perhaps you could swing by and cut the net off?_ ”

Gordon’s demeanor had changed as he listened to the caller. This was certainly something he cared about. He actively participated in research and conservation efforts regarding sea life around the world and it was probably why John had taken the call in the first place.

“Do you have any GPS data that we can use to locate him?” Gordon asked, all business-like.

“ _Yes. He’s B450, a 21-year-old blue whale male. We’ve tagged him back in ‘53... hold on._ ” The woman looked away, searching for the data to send.

“I could have Virgil drop me off a little further away so as not to scare him, it’s a thousand feet deep or more out there, it wouldn’t be a prob—” Gordon started, but stopped suddenly and his face fell. “He’s in Chile with Scott. Aw, man...”

At the same moment, the data popped on-screen and John activated Five’s ultra-sophisticated systems to provide a live feed. The sleek looking grayish animal was at the surface, moving slowly. There was a splotch of pink on one of his flanks and a larger one closer to his flukes. Gordon groaned in frustration. “Poor baby, look at him,” he muttered.

Kayo squinted to try and see better. “Is that blood?” she asked, pointing at the pink.

“No, it’s the net, see the buoys attached to it? Chances are he rolled to try to get away and it just kept getting worse.” He addressed the caller. “Is the net going through his mouth?”

“ _We think so. We weren’t able to approach him close enough._ ”

“So he’s probably hungry too.” Gordon’s leg started to jiggle; he wasn’t aware that he was moving it, but he was upset. “It’d be so simple; I could come up to him with Four and I could even help support him if he needs to rest.”

He stood up and began pacing in front of the couch. “How is it going in Chile? Are they close to coming back?” he asked his brother. “Scott will agree to this, won’t he? We can’t just leave him like that.”

“ _I figured you could go after they come back, yes, but you might have wanted to prepare beforehand._ ”

“This might not be for some hours still though...”

The caller looked disappointed but tried to remain positive. “ _We’ll take any help you can give us._ ”

Kayo was looking at something on her wrist communicator, another map of the area. “What’s this?” she asked, pointing at a larger structure on the shore.

_“That’s the Tadoussac marina.”_

“Is it big? Could we moor module four there so that it doesn’t bother the local traffic?”

“ _I suppose so, it can accommodate whale cruise ships. We might have to move boats around..._ ”

“You have about two hours. We’re coming in.”

The woman’s face transformed instantly. _“Thank you so much! He has a chance now that you’ll help. I’ll go see if there’s something I can do about the marina right away,”_ she exclaimed, then cut the communication.

The room was silent for a moment. Gordon had stopped pacing and was frowning at Kayo. “Why did you tell her that? Two’s not even here,” he said.

“I know.” She gave him a lopsided smile. “I said ‘module four’, didn’t I?”

John caught on right away. _“Are you sure about this? That’s 9,000 miles.”_

“Your point being?” she asked back, heading for her launch chute seat.

He shook his head. _“It’s your butt if Scott disapproves of this.”_

She chuckled. “Don’t worry about my butt. I’m taking full responsibility.” Then she looked at Gordon. “Are you getting ready?”

He gaped. “You’re taking me?”

“Won’t be as spectacular as Virgil landing on that parking space, but I’m sure we can manage somethi—oof!” She laughed happily and fell into the bucket seat as Gordon half-tackled, half-hugged her and nearly fell down himself as he did. “You’re not getting a window seat or an on-board meal service from me however.”

He kissed her cheek noisily and settled down in the seat next to her to use that chute instead of his usual one. “That’s fine.” he assured her as the chairs lowered.

“Just have module four ready and strap in.”

“F.A.B.”

The two seats separated to go in their respective suit up sequences. Kayo completed her own lift off procedure, then flew around to enter Two’s hangar. Since the green behemoth was much larger than Shadow, the sleek plane had some room to turn and position herself over the module. “Ready?” Kayo asked Gordon, whose hologram was floating in front of her.

He gave her a thumbs up. Kayo launched the magnetic cables, lifted the module slowly and he felt it rock around him. He watched her face set in concentration while she flew out through the hangar door, being careful not to hit anything or drag the module on the floor—Virgil would never let her hear the end of it if she pranged it. The moment she cleared the door, she relaxed and brought her ship up smoothly. “Let’s do this. Thunderbirds are go,” she stated.

***

The dock was larger than Kayo expected and there was plenty of room for her to put the module next to it. She left the cables attached so that they could moor the module to the structure. From inside, Gordon activated the hatch and let Four out, bringing her to a nearby ramp while Kayo landed. They saw the researcher running toward her, slow down a bit when she realized that this was it, but began running again.

“Not quite what you expected?” Kayo asked, trying to hide her smirk.

“Um, no, but I trust you know what you are doing,” the other woman replied politely.

They began walking toward the ramp. “Our aquanaut is the most competent there is, if something can be done, he’ll--” Kayo’s words died in her mouth when they saw Gordon shooing something out of the back part of his ship.

“I said no, don’t come in! I’d love to have you over, but not now. Uh, _Aurevoir_ Monsieur Seal—” he hesitated, then shouted: “What’s the French word for seal?”

The researcher smiled despite herself and replied. As expected, Gordon’s expression was instantly a mix of amusement and horror. The gray seal chose this moment to try and climb aboard Four again and he clapped his hands quickly to make it back off. “Monsieur, there are children around and I can’t say your name,” he tried again. 

The seal grunted in protest, but swam away.

“Better hurry to come in, Kayo, before Mr. Swear Word comes back,” Gordon said.

“My assistant and I will follow you in a zodiac. We’ll make sure to stay out of your way,” the researcher said as Kayo stepped onto the hatch and nodded.

She closed the hatch and squeezed forward into the cabin, standing at Gordon’s right. He brought up a map of the estuary; the tracer appeared on it as a blinking spot. “B450 is further up north-east from here,” Gordon said, becoming serious again. He steered Four around a few boats and headed out of the marina.

“He’s not moving much, is he?” Kayo noted.

“No...”

“Maybe he’s resting?”

“I hope so.” Gordon submerged Four and stopped his engines. He flicked a few switches on a control panel, consulted a reading, then called Five. “John, can you take a recording of the sound I’m picking up and speed it up? Ten times should do it...”

“ _F.A.B._ ”

“What sound? I can’t hear anything,” Kayo looked at the reading, then out into the blue-greenish waters as they bobbed lightly with the current.

Gordon pointed at a gauge, on which the indicator barely fluttered. At the same moment, John played back the recording. At first, there was nothing, then, a low rumble filled the cabin. The aquanaut smiled a little, then powered up his engines again. “That’s him. He’s still there. The frequency is too low for us to hear him, but my instruments are still picking it up.”

“ _I see him at the surface, his head is sticking out of the water a bit,_ ” John provided. “ _There’s a straight line behind his tail._ ”

“Probably anchored himself on something.”

“ _You’re making good progress, Thunderbird Four, you should have visual contact soon._ ”

“Could he be afraid of us and thrash around?” Kayo asked, looking out intently to try and spot something, anything.

“Yes, and yes. I’ll approach him from the flank and do a scan first.”

Kayo glanced at the sound gauge. It had stopped fluttering. “He’s not calling anymore.”

“He might have heard my engines,” Gordon commented and began to slow down progressively.

Ahead of them, a shape began to appear. Even from that distance, it was obvious that B450 was massive. Four looked like a bath toy next to him. Kayo’s jaw slacked. “Wow... he’s... huge,” she let out.

“I won’t tell my brother you said that,” Gordon replied seemingly absently, but he smiled when she rolled her eyes.

“Your brother has nothing to be ashamed of,” she countered, ignoring Gordon when he screeched “Eww, TMI!” with a mock outraged look on his face.

The aquanaut slowed down Four to a crawl once he was closer and began scanning. The whale had spotted them and had turned his body to look at them. He showed signs of uneasiness when Gordon moved in to have a better look at his mouth.

“Easy, big fellow... we should give him a name.”

“What do you mean? He already has one.”

“B450 isn’t a name, it’s a code. How would you like it if someone called you TK1?”

“I’ve been called worse things than that.”

Gordon glanced at her but his attention was quickly brought back to the current situation. The scan reached the middle section of the whale. His left flipper was held close to his body with a layer of netting and a buoy was lolling about like a charm on a cursed bracelet.

The net stretched on further, down the whale’s flank and tail. It was wound around his flukes several times, bunching into a compacted mass, then trailed behind as straight as an arrow with the tension. “Okay, that’ll be a little more complicated, Philibert,” Gordon mumbled to himself.

“Is that what you are calling him?”

He shrugged. “He looks like a Philibert. Better than B450.”

Kayo didn’t seem convinced. “If you say so.”

Philibert struggled against his pink prison and Gordon backed away. “He’s going to do some serious damage if he hits Four. You’ll need to be careful.”

Kayo immediately grew suspicious. “What do you mean, _I’ll_ need to be careful?”

The scan result appeared over the dashboard. “We’ll need to team up on this. You’ll go in with Four and use the robotic arms to cut off sections here close to his fin, here and here to free his mouth and you might have to cut a few other spots. Meanwhile, I’m gonna go work on the tail.”

“You’re gonna—” her arm shot out and she stopped him from tilting his seat back and going into the airlock. “You just said he’d damage Four and you’re going out?”

“Not much of a choice. I won’t be able to operate efficiently close to the flukes, especially if he moves around.”

She blinked. “So you’re going to go and get yourself killed?”

He rolled his eyes. “I am not. I know what I’m doing. Trust me.” He crossed his arms and tilted backwards.

“You better bloody talk to me the whole way through so that I know you’re still alive,” she exclaimed into the comms system.

“ _Yes, dear._ ”

Surprisingly, he did. He was describing what he was doing and asking her about her own progress. Kayo was moving Four slowly and with as little power as she needed to as not to frighten Philibert. He mostly floated where he was, keeping his snout and blowhole at the surface. She winced in sympathy when she cut one of the spots Gordon had indicated and saw that the net had left an indent.

She cut part of the net close to the flipper and the whale jerked when he felt he was suddenly freer. Kayo barely had the time to shout: “Gordon! He’s moving!” and back Four up before Philibert twisted on his side, swinging his tail up and down.

From where she was, she saw Gordon grab onto the net and try to stick as close to the fluke as he could, swearing the whole way. He figured he should follow the movement instead of risk being hit.

“ _He should stop soon, don’t worry,_ ” Gordon told her, then grunted. “ _C’mon, Phil, you’re hurting yourself even more, stop..._ ”

“This is one of the worst plans you’ve ever had. If you hurt yourself, I will go over there and slap you over your injury!” she promised him, watching helplessly as he was tossed around like a rag doll.

The line tautened suddenly when Philibert reached as far as he could go and he stopped moving. Gordon took a deep breath, trying to ignore his shaking arms and hands as he set back to work. “I know what I’m doing, don’t worry,” he repeated. _Mostly... maybe_ , he added to himself.

He sawed through a clump of netting, then paused to consider where to cut next for maximum efficiency. “How are you doing?” he asked Kayo.

“ _I just freed both sides of his mouth. I don’t dare pull on the part that’s still in._ ”

“Don’t, unless it comes off real easy.”

“ _He’s looking at me._ ”

“He’s your friend now.”

“ _Do you think he understands what we’re doing?_ ”

“I’m sure he does to some extent, he’s just not aware that if he tries to struggle free, he might squish us like bugs on a windshield.” Gordon couldn’t help himself and patted the soft, rubbery skin next to the area he was working on.

“ _I don’t think there’s much more I can do on my side._ ”

“Just back off a bit. I’m making good progress. If he stays still like this just a little longer, I think I can cut out some sort of sleeve and he’ll just slide out.”

He cut more clumps, trying to hurry because he knew he might not have as much time as he would hope for. One more, two more... his knife caught in a buoy fastener. Gordon pulled and wiggled it to no avail. “Come on,” he whined, annoyed, then braced himself against Philibert’s tail to give himself more strength.

That might have been a bad idea—not that Gordon would admit it. The tail shot up, taking him with it and he tried to pull away.

“ _Gordon, let go!_ ” he heard Kayo say urgently.

“I can’t...”

“ _Don’t be stupid!_ ”

He pulled frantically at the knife, felt something give and jerked backwards when the upward movement of the flukes finished opening the weakened netting nest. Finally free, Philibert swung his tail back down to torpedo away from his predicament. Kayo gasped loudly at the sight of the huge flukes missing Gordon by what seemed like a hairbreadth. The turbulence it created propelled him backward a little and... he laughed and cheered like an excited child, pumping his fist and floating sideways like nothing much had just happened.

She was fully prepared to berate him for his foolish behavior and for nearly getting killed, but when she saw the elated expression on his face as he reentered Four, she held back. _This is exactly what I tell Scott not to do to me_ , she thought, _I can’t expect any of them to let me do what I live for and not do the same for them_.

Besides, Gordon’s enthusiasm, as usual, was highly contagious and she found herself smiling broadly in return. “Some days, I love my job so much,” he stated, raising his fist in her direction.

She bumped it with hers. “Well done, partner.”

John’s hologram appeared in front of them. “ _The researcher said the whale managed to get rid of the part of netting that was still in his mouth. They are heading over to pick it up._ ” He smiled, amused. “ _She’s so excited she’s constantly switching languages._ ”

Gordon chuckled. “We’re going to reel this mess in and dispose of it before heading back to the marina.”

“ _F.A.B. I’ll let her know. Thunderbird Five out,_ ” John said before vanishing.

“Now, let’s see what Phil was stuck on.”

Gordon secured a hold on the end of the net still floating nearby with a buoy using one of the robotic arms, and began spinning it like a spool. They descended toward the bottom of the river, where it was much darker. The powerful searchlights made the net shimmer and caught a few fish and floating particles that reminded Kayo of snowflakes. Above them, a large ship was making its way upriver.

The netting became slacker and the lights flooded a large object on the riverbed. It wasn’t a shipwreck, it wasn’t a rock formation.

“Is that part of a dock? It looks like a bunch of barrels tied together,” Kayo said.

“I dunno...” Gordon circled around slowly until the lights caught on a company logo.

They looked at each other in disbelief. Then, Gordon activated the comms. button to reach Five. “Uh... John? Can you put me in contact with the researcher? I have a question for her...”

***

_“We rescued cheese!”_

Virgil’s fingers faltered on the piano’s keyboard and Scott looked up from his report at the sudden appearance of their brother and Kayo on the communication system. The eldest Tracy’s expression was halfway between incredulity and mild annoyance at what sounded like a bad prank. “You did _what_?”

John’s hologram appeared next to Gordon’s and the redhead shrugged. “ _Technically, it’s true,_ ” he provided.

He looked at all three in turns. “Do I even want to know?”

“ _Well, we weren’t here to rescue the cheese, we just happened to do it at the same time,_ ” Kayo said.

Gordon and her were sitting close together and using Kayo’s wrist communicator. She was smiling and didn’t look aggravated, so that was a good sign... wasn’t it?

“So how... what...” Scott waved his hand in front of him in an attempt to encourage an explanation.

“ _John received a call earlier and even if it wasn’t a human rescue, we figured it was worth trying something,_ ” Kayo said.

“ _Philibert needed our help_ ,” Gordon added.

Scott frowned. “Who’s Philibert?”

“ _A whale. And before you say anything, I want to say that he really needed us and the outing was justified._ ”

“A rescue’s a rescue,” Virgil commented, seemingly amused by the situation.

Scott addressed his partner. “And he convinced you to take him there?” he asked, nodding his head toward Gordon.

“ _I offered to take him and don’t regret it one second._ ” She looked at Virgil. “ _We might need a retrieval now though. I’m not sure I have enough fuel to go back with the additional weight of the module._ ” Virgil crossed his arms on his chest, trying to look unimpressed at her lack of forethought but he was finding the whole situation funny and the corners of his mouth were quirking in a telltale way. “ _Actually, bring the others with you. Gordon and I saw this lovely inn and restaurant—John, if you come over you could be our interpreter if we can’t understand them._ ”

Scott pinched the bridge of his nose, unsure of where this was going. “So, you’ve rescued a whale...” he tried.

“ _Yeah, would you believe that? He was as big as Thunderbird One! Poor baby... He was caught in a fishing net and was having a hard time breathing by the time we got there. He was weighed down by the net, and he was pulling the cheese along, all 1700 pounds of it!_ ” Gordon explained.

“Dare I ask how nearly a ton of cheese got in the water in the first place, never mind how the whale was pulling it?”

“ _It’s a special batch a local cheesemaker produces. They put it down in the fjord here, about 400 feet deep and leave it there for nearly a year, but something went wrong and the batch became undone from its mooring location and went down the river,_ ” John explained.

“ _The cheesemaker said that when they began making it years ago, they lost the first batch and never found it again. They had even offered a reward,_ ” Kayo added.

“ _So Philibert was lucky in his bad luck. He was freed and the cheesemakers got their stock back,_ ” Gordon said.

“ _We’ll get the batch back up the fjord while we wait for you. We were promised some as a thank you gesture,_ ” she concluded.

“Can’t say no to free food, Scott,” Virgil said, standing up from the piano stool.

“ _I’m curious... I’m taking the elevator down. Thunderbird Five out,_ ” John said, shutting off his comm link.

“ _What do you say, bro?_ ” Gordon asked Scott, then leaned forward and switched to a very unsubtle stage whisper: “ _It’s a very romantic-looking place._ ”

“Well, in that case,” Scott replied, winking at Kayo who smiled back.

“ _Great! See you in a few,_ ” Gordon said and the young woman wiggled her fingers at Scott and Virgil and shut off her comm link as well.

As both brothers went up the stairs to the bedrooms to get a change of clothes for Gordon and Kayo, Scott couldn’t help but wonder out loud: “Philibert?”

Virgil shook his head. “Must be some sort of scientific naming convention they have.”

**Author's Note:**

> As silly as cheese in a river might seem... this has actually happened around here! They did lose their first batch and offered a reward, but never found it again. No whale got caught on a batch, however (not that I'm aware of anyway). 
> 
> I know I've taken a few liberties about whale rescues, I hope the local organizations won't mind.
> 
> As for the word 'seal' in French, it's 'phoque' and we pronounce it just like the f-word... so that's why Gordon was flustered!


End file.
